High-level waste vitrification by spray calcination/in-can melting

Abstract

Although the PNL information included herein is presented u s i n g the West Valley P l a n t i n New York as the bases, i t i s applicable t o other fuel reprocessing plants. These include the higher capacity A1 1 ied General Nuclear Services, Barnwell p l a n t , and the proposed Exxon p l a n t. crs T h i s document presents information available on the Spray Calciner/In-Can. .. Melter Vitrification process. for preparation of a preliminary safety analysis and t o supply information necessary for cell layout and design of process equipment. mainly t o t h a t equipment required for v i t r i f i c a t i o n , including the HLLW feed system, calciner, me1 t e r , and canister post-treatment. i n less detail are an effluent treatment system, the f r i t feeding system, and other m i nor out-of-cel 1 i terns. This information i s intended t o provide the basis Descriptions are limited Other systems described 3 n SUMMARY Current Federal regulations require t h a t HLLW from a commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing p l a n t be converted t o a dry solid i n a container suitable for custody i n a Federal repository. In-Can Melting process f o r producing such a waste. potential commercial fuel reprocessors and ERDA, i s demonstrating this process f o r commercial application. those of NFS for t h e i r plant a t West Valley, New York, and t o anticipated regulations for waste canister receipt a t a Federal repository. reported directly applies t o other nuclear fuel reprocessing f a c i l i t i e s such as A1 1 ied General Nucl ear Servi ces , Barnwell plant , and the proposed Exxon p l a n t. PNL has developed the Spray Solidification/ PNL, i n cooperation w i t h The bases used i n t h i s document are similar t o The technology A reference NFS flowsheet has been established. This flowsheet combines plant HA Column Wastes, Low-Level Wastes, and various HLLW process recycle streams t o produce a borosi 1 i cate gl ass w i t h these properties : Reference HLW G1 ass Properties Cal cine Content: 33 w t % Density: 3.0 g/cm volume: 3.3 ft3/mu Heat Generation Rate: 560 W/liter Thermal Conductivity: 1 .O W/m-"K @ 2 O O O C Leach Rate: ~1 0 '~ g/cm-day 3 2 After the canister i s f i l l e d and the l i d i s seal welded, the canister l i d weld will be leak checked, visually inspected, and decontaminated prior t o storage o r other operations. c H20

West Valley demonstration project: alternative processes for solidifying the high-level wastes

“…The in-can me1ter (Blair 1979;Larson and Bonner 1976;Wheelwright et a1. 1979) and jouleheated melter processes for high-level-waste vitrification have been demonstrated at PNL.…”